the words
by everydaynerd
Summary: soulmate au in which on your sixteenth birthday the first words your soulmate will ever speak to you appear on your skin; after not meeting her soulmate for a while, Annabeth gets anxious, but her best friend Percy doesn't seem bothered not to have met his. percabeth, fluff, etc.


The words appear on your sixteenth birthday-no one knows why, or how, or how long it's been going on, but since the beginning of recorded history the soulwords have been mentioned. The first words your soulmate will ever speak to you, inked on your skin.

The words have adapted over time, and will be accurate whether a soul mate's first words come in person, online, or in sign language, moving to the next closest extremity of your right hand is gone; if one is blind they appear in braille, dots that looked like a strange tattoo until people realized what was happening.

Annabeth's appeared without waking her the morning of her sixteenth birthday; a Saturday, Percy's feet in her face as they normally were when she woke up on the couch after one of their sleepovers. His place, of course; as soon as his monstrous first stepfather was locked up when they were twelve, they were happy to relocate from the park and library where they had spent all of their waking hours, back to the apartment where Sally was always waiting with a smile and a fresh batch of blue cookies.

As soon as her eyes opened, Annabeth snatched her wrist to her face, and there they were in black ink: _Now_ that _is a huge book_.

Not much of a clue there-Annabeth was constantly reading, and aside from avid readers and librarians, the sentiment was one she heard often, always had. So she'd have to wait it out, till he or she revealed themself by opening their mouth.

"Perce. Percy. Wake up, Seaweed Brain!" She shook his shoulder without success, then resorted to pushing him off the couch and onto the cushions below, there for precisely this purpose (because most days this was the only way she or Sally could get the kid up; he slept like the dead).

"What-what time-happy birth-wait, what are they?" He jerked upright and grasped around for her wrist, bumping her hip as he fumbled and snatched her forearm toward him. "So they're not as nerdy as you-good. You need someone to make you take a break from books and eat. And sleep. And bathe."

Annabeth rolled her eyes at him, "And then what will I keep you around for?"

"My mom," he says cheekily, not even bothering to argue for his (hypothetical) value.

"You've got me there," Annabeth admits, hopping to her feet. "Come on, sleepyhead. I can smell the angel's cooking from here."

/

/

/

From then on, she listens for those words, the ones that will change her life, from everyone she meets. There's the new guy working at her and Percy's favorite coffee shop-but no, he locks eyes with her and asks her name, and she feels her face fall. A girl she meets in passing on the subway-but she compliments Annabeth's Yankee cap, and saying thank you tastes bitter in her mouth.

A month later, when Percy's birthday passes and his own words appear (' _Don't be ridiculous',_ clearly accurate) she feels a pang, because while she always knew they weren't meant to be a part of her could never help but love her best friend all these years, and now she'll have to watch him fall in love with his soulmate and support him all the while.

/

The months continue to pass, not in a blur as she'd hoped, but in the slow drudging way that time seems to love moving when you beg it not to, and she still hasn't met her soul mate. Percy hasn't either, but it doesn't seem to bother him much-and why should it? He's perfect, she's thought so since they were children; whoever his soul mate is will love him instantly, and even if he never meets them there will be people lining up left and right just for a chance to have the privilege of loving him, one she's been lucky to have most of her life.

Still, it's not till the night before they both leave for college-her off to Yale, and him to NYU (after a long and stressful couple of years of immensely hard work on both of their parts), that she confronts him about his blase attitude towards the situation they're stuck in, while the people around them gradually find their happy endings.

"I just don't see why you care so much, Annabeth, they're just _words_."

"And I don't see why you _don't_ care-these are our _soulmates_ we're talking about, of course I'm worried we haven't met them! How can you not care?"

"Forgive me for not valuing some foreign person destiny has just ~decided~ is right for me over…" he trails off into mumbles she can't hear. "I'm sick of having this argument again and again, can you please just stop?" he exclaims, and she loses her temper.

"No, I _can't_ Percy-god, if you don't care about meeting your soulmate that's your prerogative, but I'm your best friend and it would be nice if you weren't such a goddamn prick when I'm worried I'll be forever alone."

"Excuse me?" he demands, flabbergasted.

"You're perfect, Perce, and you'll have no trouble either way, but could you just _pretend_ to want me to find my soul mate?"

"You know what? No, I can't, Annabeth." He says it without guilt, resignation flooding his face, and it's only the shock of him actually acknowledging what he's doing that makes her refrain from screaming.

"I can't pretend to want you to find someone else when I've been in love with you since we were sixteen-I can't pretend to want anyone else, any other life than this one. But you're so obsessed with the idea of soulmates that I never stood a chance-I'll just have to grin and bear it as the happy best man at your wedding like it's not killing me that I won't ever get to be with you."

He leans forward to kiss her on the cheek as he gets up to leave, without another word, but she turns her head and catches his lips with hers, and they move in sync for the better of ten minutes before she breaks away, still gasping, and stands to go.

"Yeah, me too, Seaweed Brain," she tells him without decorum, jogging to her car only to sob her way home, having to pull over on the way just to breathe.

In the morning she drives away, knowing he's doing the same and hoping that somehow things will work out-something will ease this ache that she can't understand, because she has everything she ever wanted and yet nothing at the same time.

/

/

/

They don't talk about it.

They talk about everything else-classes, homework, new friends, jobs, the universe and the meaning of life-everything except the kiss that seems to drown out the rest of their past together, the declarations of love that went with it.

They're constantly texting, facetimeing, you name it, but it never comes up-and Annabeth never dares to ask him if he's met her yet. His soulmate.

(He doesn't ask her, either.)

They both act as if nothing has changed, like they're the same kids who learned to ride bikes together and put laxatives in Smelly Gabe's bean dip, who went to prom together and took not one serious picture.

She doesn't see him again until their first winter break.

She knows they'll both be home, of course, and Sally has already established that she'll be staying with them, no ifs, ands, or buts (Sally has always known how Frederick and Helen treat her), but somehow it didn't really click until she lets herself in with the key she's had since she was twelve and hears him call out, "Mom? You're home early."

She freezes just over the threshold, and when he comes to see what's taking Sally so long he does too, and they both stand there, taking each other in.

He looks beautiful-maybe a tiny bit more toned, a little less tan, and a little more tired, but all in all he's growing into himself.

She knows now he can see the things she's been hiding from him during their daily conversation-how little she's been eating and sleeping, the worn look in her eyes; she worked her ass off all through high school to be where she is, but now she's so incredibly burnt out and none of it really seems worth the trouble anymore.

"Hey, Wise Girl," he whispers, and she slowly steps forward and carefully wraps her arms around him, surrounded by the comfort that's been keeping her sane since before she can remember.

They spend two hours catching up for real, her admitting how much she's been struggling with school and the depression that's been hanging around for years and decided to flare up, and him about how hard he's trying to balance school and the number of hours he has to work to keep up with his rent.

When the daylight is all but gone, she gets up the courage to ask him. "Have you-have you met…" she trails off, but of course he knows what she means, and shakes his head.

"No," he bites his lip. "Have you?"

"Has she what?" Sally's chipper voice asks, approaching behind them with her boyfriend Paul, who Annabeth had met plenty of times before moving to New Haven but has since moved in with Sally (this one might be the one for her).

"Hey, Sally," Annabeth greets her, face lighting up, question forgotten. She greets the only mother she's ever had joyously and they run through how her semester has been as if they don't talk on the phone every week (and it's a hard talk-eventually Sally pulls her to her bedroom, because the woman is perceptive and can see no details are going to come out until they're alone).

/

They eventually re-emerge when Percy whines from the living room about being hungry (which is fair, being that it's almost eight), and after they finish devouring two pizzas, Sally claps her hands together excitedly. "I have a special treat-something I found while I was cleaning up your room while you were gone, Perce."

Percy goes pale, and Annabeth snorts knowing he's imagining his mother finding the figurine collection he swore to her he got rid of years ago, but Sally is much too chipper for that.

They all pile onto the old, extremely worn, extremely comfortable couch, and a smile graces Annabeth's face as the screen lights up with the telltale stamp of a video camera. Sally's found some home movies.

They must be from ages ago-Gabe never liked her 'wasting money' on tape, and Sally married him when Annabeth and Percy were eight, so definitely the seaweed brain's early years.

The camera goes to a small boy wiggling enough to make his whole high chair bounce, giggles pouring out of his mouth _. "Hi Percy, honey, how old are you today?"_

" _Tree! Tree tree tree!"_ The toddler's voice is delighted, his eyes shining, and his hair in tiny curls.

" _That's right! What a smart little boy I have. I think that means you deserve….cake?"_

Baby Percy screeches his approval, and Sally puts the camera down to cut him some, so all they can see is tiny feet kicking at the air.

The video changes, and for an hour or two they watch clips of Percy growing steadily older, the man in question's cheeks growing steadily more red, before she recognizes the setting in one.

"Oh!" she gasps almost without meaning to at the sight of their park. They're probably spent thousands of hours there, over the years.

" _Moooom, why do you have to tape_ everything _?"_ Six year old Percy whines, but it's clear it's more out of embarrassment than actually minding anything his mother does-the kid has always idolized her.

" _Honey, I know it seems annoying now, but these will be fun to watch when you're older! Now go play, we only have an hour."_ Current Percy lets out an airy laugh beside her, and Annabeth chuckles in tandem.

The camera follows Percy as he walks around, getting a good look at the playground before the sight of another child pulls him to a stop, and both teenagers on the couch stop breathing.

"Oh my god," Percy whispers, watching his younger self approach the miniscule blonde, nose buried in a book from the swing on which she perches. "Mom, I never knew you had this on video."

"I didn't either, honey," the older woman confesses.

Video Percy walks closer to Annabeth, and the present time her smiles at seeing herself indulge in _Order of the Phoenix_ for the first time-870 pages, her first major character death; all in all, a foundational experience for the person she ended up becoming.

Finally, child Percy is right in front of her, and you can see how nervous he is, but he still clears his throat to get her attention. She looks up, slightly miffed at being interrupted while reading, and quirks an eyebrow, waiting for him to speak.

Percy looks around, seemingly grappling for a conversation starter, before his eyes lock on the book. " _Now_ that _is a huge book."_ No one in the living room moves, except Paul, who doesn't know what they're witnessing. Video Percy offers her a small smile. " _I'm Percy, by the way. Short for Perseus, but that just seems like a weird name so I don't normally tell people."_

Video Annabeth slides a bookmark into her place, setting her book on the grass before responding. " _Don't be ridiculous. Perseus was one of the best Greek heroes-that's an awesome name. I'm Annabeth."_ Percy slides into the swing beside her and begins to chatter away, the way he's been doing ever since.

The tape stops and starts making the noise that means it's time to flip it over, but Sally doesn't move a muscle, eyes trained on the soulmates beside her whose gaze is locked on one another.

"What-" Paul begins to ask, finally breaking the silence and picking up on the tension in the room, but Sally claps a palm over his mouth and drags him from the room with a hush and whispers that gradually fade until it's just the two of them.

It's always been just the two of them.

Annabeth doesn't know what to say-Percy looks as shocked as she feels, and obviously this is _perfect_ , this is genuinely everything she could've hoped for since one day when they were twelve and Percy blew her a kiss and she realized she wanted that more than she should-but that all seems far away as in this moment, she doesn't really know how to address their situation.

"So," Percy starts, clearing his throat, and she feels her stomach drop below her feet. Is he okay with this? Would he still want to be with her if he had the choice? "I think you're going to have to find a new best man."

Annabeth comes up short, and her brain _can not_ find the connection, whatever in hell that made that come out of his mouth. "Sorry?"

"Well, it would be really difficult to be both best man _and_ the groom, wouldn't it? I suppose I could give my speech on what good taste you have…" he muses, and Annabeth bursts out laughing, a few tears sliding out of the corners of her eyes of their own volition.

Of _course_ he's cracking jokes. It's so _Percy_.

"Well, now I _definitely_ get to keep Sally around forever."

He lights up with a grin at her teasing before he can stop himself, and when she sees him leaning towards her she braces herself for another one of his mind-warping kisses-but no, he's just pulling her towards him and wrapping his arms around her, sitting his chin on her shoulder from behind (which is good, because she doesn't think she could handle kissing him with all the emotion currently exploding inside of her head).

"I love you." He said it that day, of course, but there was so much emotion and angst surrounding the memory that Annabeth had almost convinced herself it didn't happen. This, though, this is real and immediate and washing over her like the wave of warmth from a fire on a bitterly cold day.

"I love you too." Her voice is quiet, but he tenses up and she knows he hears her. Annabeth intertwines with his, still clasped together around her torso, and feels him lean forward-only to press a kiss to her forehead. Her soulmate. Her Percy.

/

/

Sally found them in the morning, cocooned in each others' warmth on the couch like always, Paul urging her to stay quiet to keep from waking them up as she danced around giddily. "Can you just _imagine_ our grandchildren?"


End file.
